Thorns & Oranges

Little Taste Of Heaven

"Really? How interesting for you."

"I think it'll be interesting for you too."

*

It seemed my brain wanted to be dramatic for a little bit. When they took a second MRI the swelling was the same, if not a little worse. The doctors started to worry about fluids not flowing out of the brain properly and told me if it didn't go down in the next two hours, they were going to put me in a coma. If it continued to get worse, they were going to cut out a piece of my skull to help release some of the pressure. Needless to say, I wasn't exactly thrilled about any of it. Rey was discharged by the time they told me this and he continued to sit bedside through the whole thing. My brother was gracious enough to bring him a shirt but that was it. Rey wasn't too perturbed since that's all he needed. Guys apparently weren't sticklers about clean clothes like girls were. He was more than happy to stay in his day old jeans and underwear. He joked that if he wanted to make it last longer, he could just turn them inside out.

I told him if he did that, he wasn't allowed near me until rectified the situation by showering and changing his underwear.

With the combination of meds and a few hours of interrupted sleep, my brain calmed down. When I woke up, my headache was less but not completely gone. When they took the next MRI, the swelling was down dramatically. By the evening, I was released from the hospital.

Jorge didn't follow through with his statement of getting my answer before I left the hospital. Unlike my brother, he never came back to check up on me. I was a little worried Vince had followed through with his threat but Rey said he got a call from Houston, checking on my status and setting up the next meet. Apparently Jorge was busy with other 'personal' things. That's all Rey would tell me.

And yes, I told him about that pesky little question Jorge had asked.

Rey was not thrilled.

For the next couple of days, Rey didn't let me out of his sight for more than five minutes. It had to be hard on him since he was recovering too but he didn't show any signs he was hurting or in pain. I convinced my brother Rey should stay with us until he felt better and after a good long talk alone with Rey in his office, he agreed. We'd yet to have our chat concerning what exactly my brother knew about my extracurricular activities with the two cops but I figured he was just waiting until I felt better before delving into it. It took a week for my headache to go away and when that time came around, I was back to looking normal. There were no bruises, no cuts, and no scabs in sight.

And since I was feeling better, everything was unloaded all at once. Houston wanted to meet the next day and when I got home from work, my brother was eyeing me like he was going to lay into me. Before he could do that, though, I scampered up to Rey's room where I'd been hiding out all week and took a shower. I was now sprawled across Rey's bed, relaxed and staring up at the ceiling while he was in the bathroom on his cell. He'd get phone calls at odd hours and I'd learned after the first night to roll over and not ask questions. I figured he was probably checking in with whoever he checked in with or vice versa. Our late night activities were limited, reduced down to nothing more than snuggling until his burn healed and my headache went away. I found it rather hilarious this might very well be the first time in history that excuse was true. Most guys didn't buy into the whole 'Honey, I have a headache' bit but since Rey knew it was true, he was perfectly fine with the situation.

He even stuck to his word, no matter how crappy he was feeling at the end of the day or how much he didn't want to get out of bed, he took me to work and showed up a few minutes before we closed so he could take me home when I was finished. I'd serve him dinner and he'd eat and talk to me while I gave the diner a scrub down. He commented once it probably wasn't good for my headache to be breathing in all the fumes from the cleaners but I just shot him a look and he shut up, begrudgingly of course.